Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Staunton, August 18 – Madlen Rozenblum,
an émigré psychotherapist who has been helping Ukrainians with Skype
consultations and training sessions, says that Ukrainians are going to need a
generation or even more to overcome the traumas inflicted on them by Russian
aggression there.

“The
trauma in Ukraine is so massive and prolonged that this theme will be important
for 30 years after the end of this hell which for the time being is continuing,”
Rozenblum says.And that is going to require
enormous effort and resources if Ukraine is going to recover from what Moscow
has done to it and its people.

Ukraine
needs psychologists and volunteers, she says; but at present, it especially
needs to be conscious of the fact that Ukrainians are suffering from traumas.
And to that end, Rozenblum adds, it is especially important that Ukrainians
learn to recognize the danger signs so that they can get help for themselves or
others.

The
New York psychotherapist says she conducts Skype sessions with volunteers in
nine Ukrainian cities. From 100 to 200 people take part in each of these. They
talk about the lack of money, time and personnel; but they are increasingly
working together rather than competing with one another. And that multiplies
their impact.

All
groups in the population need help because all include traumatized people,
Rozenblum says. But among the groups requiring particular effort are children
who do now understand what is happening, soldiers returning from the front who
find it difficult to adapt, and the families of those who have lost someone in
the fighting.

Moreover,
there are the traumas resulting from conflicts between those who support
Ukraine and those who support Russia. And all these things need to be addressed
even though they seem to many to be secondary issues given that Ukraine is
currently at war. Fighting these traumas is part of that fight, she says.

Rozenblum
says she is encouraged by two things: On the one hand, the number of volunteers
in Ukraine who want to help is simply “fantastic.”“With each day, the lists of resources [of
this kind] are becoming larger and more dynamic.” And thus, “it is always a
source of joy to see how they arise and spread throughout the country by means
of social networks.”

And
on the other, she notes, Ukraine is receiving help from around the world.
Rozenblum says that the contribution of Israeli therapists has been especially
important given their experiences with the trauma of a war that seems to go on
forever. Their materials need to be used as widely as possible in Ukraine.

But
despite the traumas Ukrainians are suffering from at the present time,
Rozenblum says, she is very confident that the Ukrainian nation “as such will
survive, and the more resources we have, the fewer will be the losses,”
physical or psychological, despite the horrors of the current war.